Chamois, or SHAMMY, a kind of leather, either dressed in oil or tanned, much esteemed for its softness, pliancy, &c. It is prepared from the skin of the chamois, or shamois, a kind of rupicapra, or wild goat, called also ifard, inhabiting the mountains of Dauphiné, Savoy, Piedmont, and the Pyrenees. Besides the softness and warmth of the leather, it has the faculty of bearing soap without damage; which renders it very useful on many accounts.

In France, &c. some wear the skin raw, without any preparation. Shammy leather is used for the purifying of mercury, which is done by passing it through the pores of this skin, which are very close. The true chamois leather is counterfeited with common goat, kid, and even with sheep skins, the practice of which makes a particular profession, called by the French chamoisier. The last, though the least esteemed, is yet so popular, and such vast quantities of it are prepared, especially about Orleans, Marseilles, and Tholoue, that it may be proper to give the method of preparation.

Manner of shamoising, or of preparing sheep, goat, or kid skins in oil, in imitation of shammy.—The skins, being washed, drained, and smeared over with quicklime on the fleshy side, are folded in two lengthwise, the wool outwards, and laid in heaps, and so left to ferment eight days, or, if they had been left to dry after flaying, then fifteen days.

Then they are washed out, drained, and half dried; laid on a wooden leg, or horse, the wool stripped off with a round staff for that purpose, and laid in a weak pit, the lime whereof had been used before, and has lost the greatest part of its force.

After 24 hours they are taken out, and left to drain 24 more; they are then put in another stronger pit. This done, they are taken out, drained, and put in again, by turns; which begins to dispose them to take oil; and this practice they continue for six weeks in summer, or three months in winter: at the end whereof they are washed out, laid on the wooden leg, and the surface of the skin on the wool side peeled off, to render them the softer; then made into parcels, steeped a night in the river, in winter more, stretched fix or seven over one another on the wooden leg, and the knife passed strongly on the fleshy side, to take off any thing superfluous, and render the skin smooth. Then they are steeped, as before, in the river, and the same operation is repeated on the wool side; they are then thrown into a tub of water, with bran in it, which is brewed among the skins till the greatest part sticks to them, and then separated into distinct tubs, till they swell, and rise of themselves above the water. By this means the remains of the lime are cleared out; they are then wrung out, hung up to dry on ropes, and sent to the mill, with the quantity of oil necessary to scour them: the best oil is that of stock-fish. Here they are first thrown in bundles into the river for 12 hours, then laid in the mill-trough, and fulled without oil till they be well softened; then oiled with the hand, one by one, and thus formed into parcels of four skins each; which are milled and dried on cords a second time; then a third; and then oiled again, and dried. This process is repeated as often as necessity requires; when done, if there be any moisture remaining, they are dried in a stove, and made up into parcels wrapped up in wool; after some time they are opened to the air, but wrapped up again as before, till such time as the oil seems to have lost all its force, which it ordinarily does in 24 hours. The skins are then returned from the mill to the chamoiser to be scoured; which is done by putting them in a lixivium of wood ashes, working and beating them in it with poles, and leaving them to steep till the ley hath had its effect; then they are wrung out, steeped in another lixivium, wrung again; and this is repeated till all the greates and oil be purged out. When this is done, they are half dried, and passed over a sharp-edged iron instrument, placed perpendicular in a block, which opens, softens, and makes them gentle. Lastly, they are thoroughly dried, and passed over the same instrument again; which finishes the preparation, and leaves them in the form of shammy.

Kid and goat skins are shamoised in the same manner as those of sheep, excepting that the hair is taken off without the use of any lime; and that when brought from the mill they undergo a particular preparation called ramalling, the most delicate and difficult of all the others. It consists in this, that, as soon as brought from the mill, they are steeped in a fit lixivium, taken out, stretched on a round wooden leg, and the hair is scraped off with the knife; this makes them smooth, and in working to cast a kind of fine knap. The difficulty is in scraping them evenly.